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THE FEELING
Hammersmith Apollo 3 March 2007

A momentus gig in more ways than one as it marks the first gig attended by my eight year old daughter. She steals a march on me as I was seventeen before going to my first gig (the 1985 Monsters of Rock!). She is a big fan of the Feeling (as am I) and she loved it, dancing away, singing the words and throwing Dio-approved hand signs.

A sold out Hammersmith and the last night of the band's current UK tour, but first up we had the Fray, whose album is currently sitting in the UK's top 10 albums. They started promising enough with their piano led pop rock but as their set wore on you couldn't help feeling all their songs sounded the same! My hopes were dashed with three guitarists took to the stage as instead of some Lynyrd Skynyrd approved triple guitar boogie it was more pleasant but hardly essential pop rock.

The crowd was a real mix of ages from toddlers up to late 50's, although screaming teenage girls certainly made their presence felt. The Feeling took to the stage after a short intro of fans miming and performing the Feeling's tunes, a nice touch. I have to say now this band are even better live and hot the harmonies with ease, ratlling through their debut album with highlights including the harmony filled 'Never Be Lonely', 'Fill My Little World', 'Kettle's On' and the ballad 'Rosé'.

Singer/guitarist Dan Sells is the consumate frontman - works the crowd with ease, lots of showmanship and a fine voice. As they only have one album so far they use a couple of covers including the Buugles hit 'Video Killed The Radio Star' (which I have heard numerous times performed at Asia gigs but these boys top that!) and Queen's 'Fat Bottomed Girls', which used as an encore bought the house down. No mean feat as it followed possibly their strongest track 'Love It When You Call'.

Closing the set was 'Blue Piccadilly' and a finale worthy of the Who minus the guitar smashing. One of the best gigs I have seen in years and its great to see a band who aren't afraid to use melody and harmonies in their music. The natural heirs to ELO, Supertramp and Squeeze.

Review by Jason Ritchie